what is a Probiotic

Probiotics are live microorganisms used as a food supplement with proven beneficial effects for the host.

Project overview

The aim of this research is to improve the health, wellbeing, performance, and disease resistance in poultry through manipulation of intestinal microbiota using probiotics. Probiotic administration can offer the chicken host numerous immunological benefits such as increased immune response and pathogen reduction. Metabolically, they can play a very effective role in improving feed conversion efficiency and weight gain in poultry. Currently, the transient use of probiotics in the poultry industry do not allow for permanent colonisation of these beneficial microorganisms in the intestinal tract and a continuous supplementation of probiotics to poultry represents a significant annual cost to farmers. Our research intends to address this problem by improving probiotic design and the efficiency of probiotic administration to achieve an increase in the production of safe and clean food, increase in the growth rate of poultry and the maximisation of local and international chicken meat exports for human consumption.